macskull

The launch version of the game was very different than the post-invention-system game, and the game isn't balanced around IOs anyways.

IIRC most of the stuff that hasn't been proliferated yet is due to balance concerns (for example, Powerhouse has said fairly recently that Tankers won't get Energy Aura in its current form because it would be too good). I don't know how much stock I hold in that idea though, since some of the existing proliferation is ridiculous already (hello, Kin and Rad for MMs and Poison for Defenders).

Oh no, I'm not arguing for that at all. Hell, I barely pay attention to what sets people are if I'm trying to round out the last 1-3 slots for a speed TF/SF because as long as the person at the keyboard is somewhat intelligent the build doesn't really matter... and if they're not, hey, veng bait. What does annoy me is something like, say, having an Empathy Defender on the team who has all the buffs and just follows the tank around spamming unnecessary heals while ignoring the rest of the team. Unfortunately there's no way to address something like that beforehand, only a player rating system that is somewhat clunky.

I don't mind the ability to see other peoples' power picks. I'll be honest - if I'm inviting a random person to the team looking at their power picks is maybe the best at-a-glance option I have to see if they'll be an asset or a liability. Sure, you might be a great player who just happens to be playing on a petless MM because you want the challenge, but if I don't know you that's not a risk I'm willing to take.

I don't think there's anything wrong with the existing system.

Shit, mini is back?

It's been identified since pretty much day one of the set existing that Willpower's taunt aura is bad. Invincibility is one of the better ones. Looking at the numbers from CoD it doesn't look like there's any difference in mag or duration between Scrappers, Tankers, and Brutes for those sets that have taunt auras. Punchvoke and new Gauntlet should mean that Tankers/Brutes will grab aggro more easily from a Scrapper though.

Scrapper Invincibility = 17 second mag 3 taunt. Tanker RttC = 1.25 second mag 3 taunt.

Ooooooookay then.

So are you saying that Scrappers aren't an AoE damage AT either?

So... almost every new Stalker melee set keeps all the AoE of its non-Stalker version and in some cases (hello, Staff Fighting and Elec Melee) the Stalker versions are better than the version every other AT gets - and with the changes to the way Stalker crits work on teams (plus the Stalker ATO procs) Stalkers absolutely are an AoE damage AT now. They're basically slightly squishier Scrappers that can crit on command. If you really wanted to, you could dip into the Presence pool on a Blaster, Defender, Sentinel, or whatever else, and given the right build, manage aggro, at least until a Tank/Brute/Kheld shows up and pulls mobs off with their more-effective taunting. Issue 18 blurred the lines between ATs when side-switching was introduced and it's been getting blurrier and blurrier ever since.

Scrappers also get the taunt component as part of the port. I've had at least two people quote me saying that it isn't shown ingame or in Mids and those people are correct - the ingame numbers and Mids often lack all the information about the power so you have to look in places like City of Data, which shows a 2.25s mag 3 taunt. This makes it one of the weaker taunt auras from any defensive set, but it is there.

Energy's Entropic Aura has a taunt component.

As I understand it enhancement converters only work on power-unique enhancements (like, I can't slot two LotG def/end pieces in any given power), so if enhancement converters were able to be used for Hami O's they would become power-unique as well. I don't know the technical background there since I am not familiar with the code but it would either require a significant rework of the enhancement converter system or you'd have to deal with not being able to slot duplicate Hami O's in a given power. That being said, I'd love it if converters worked on Hami/Titan/Hydra O's.

It's a lot more work and doesn't solve the problem.

The toggle itself doesn't drop (unless you get mezzed while it's animating but that's another can of worms), but the intangibility suppresses until the combat tick after the mez wears off.

1:08:30 Dr Q.

@Captain Powerhouse Any chance Phase Shift could get a pass while we're testing PvP changes? Toggle suppression isn't supposed to be a thing in PvP and right now the intangibility suppresses while mezzed which means that even if you manage to get it toggled on when you see the first attacks against you in your buff bar, if one of those attacks is a mez it's like you didn't even phase at all.

SR on Tankers and Brutes has a taunt aura (Evasion). It also has scaling resists to the point where if you're shoring up your numbers with set bonuses you become very hard to kill once you're below 15-20% health or so. SR also has about 95% def debuff resistance when slotted, EA gets about 65% outside of Overload.

My main since the game came back has been a Fire/Cold Corruptor which was on SOs for the first 4 or 5 months. I'm a proponent of SO balance because that is what the live devs repeatedly said the game was balanced against and because rebalancing the game around IOs would turn this game into a grind for loot (unless IOs were made free, which you know would never happen).

The second the game starts to be balanced around IOs is the second the IO system no longer becomes optional.

Fire doesn't have any secondary effects so you lose out on the ability to slot non-unique damage procs (the only one you'll have access to is the Glad Jav proc) but it works. PvP damage numbers mean you get into weird situations like Fire Blast doing more damage than Blaze, for example. Ice is a bit weird too - Bitter Freeze Ray is sort of worth it on a Sentinel because you're tough enough where its long animation time isn't as likely to get you killed, but Chilling Ray is an awful replacement for Freeze Ray and most of your damage is going to be in proc'd out Bitter Ice Blast but one attack isn't a good chain. For what it's worth you can change the tinting/color of powers now.

Energy isn't great. It can work but sets like Ice, Beam, Psi, and Fire are going to give you better results.

What

I would be okay with using this sort of data for entertainment purposes, or maybe for investigating underperforming IO sets/set bonuses, but I would absolutely not be okay with using this data to change the way the game plays because that takes the invention system from the realm of "optional but really nice" to "required."